I have not been able to get to a WiFi Hotspot for a week and I am really behind in posting to my blog! Right now, we are at Katie and Savanna's house, but they are not here - they are visiting friends in New York. So we have the use of the place - for showers and - WiFi! Yay! I'll do my best to catch up.
Yesterday (Saturday) we went to a concert at The Inn on Putney Road in Brattleboro at noon. It was a really lovely concert by Steve Proctor (guitar) and Karen Axelrod (accordion), both superlative musicians. It included several pieces by Astor Piazzolla (an Argentinian tango composer), which were really, really lovely. It was held outside in the truly charming backyard of the Inn. I took several photos and a video, and even made a recording of much of the concert. But to my chagrin, I just realized that those are all on the other phone, which I did not bring with me, so more on that later. But I found these photos online:
'
Astor Piazzolla, Argentinian composer
After the concert, we met John and Cynthia back at the house on the deck. It was sunny, but chilly, so we had to dress warmly. But we had a lovely visit. We had not seen Cynthia for a while, so that was great. John and Cynthia were not able to come to the concert, but I played part of my recording of it, and we got to enjoy it together. We talked about getting a fire pit that we could use on the deck to prolong its use as a meeting place. I guess with the proper precautions, that is actually possible! We'll see! Maybe something like this:
Earlier in the week? Well, the bake element in our Hotpoint electric range burned out, so Ellen was not able to bake some apple pies for the Dummerston Church as she intended, but there is still time. We ordered a replacement online and it arrived yesterday - in two days. And we found an installment video online as well. So, hopefully, replacing that will go well!
Thursday evening was the Swarthmore Short Stories course. This time, the subject was Jorge Luis Borges, a very prolific Argentinian author, who has long been a favorite of mine, though I had not read anything by him for years. I first encountered him in the 1960s in grad school. He is paradoxical, labyrinthian, sly, allusive and illusive! I enjoyed the lecture very much and just want to go back and read more Borges.
On Wednesday, we entertained Mary Cay and Manny for lunch - on the deck, of course. We had a really nice conversation about our family backgrounds, esp. Mary Cay's and Ellen's. We have never used the deck so much for entertaining. Actually, we've never used it so much, period! It's a beautiful place to entertain! One of the unexpected pluses of the pandemic.
Wednesday noon was the CTS Reflections Zoom session. President Ray was the main presenter, and he and a friend, Bishop Dwayne Royster, talked about what we can do as church folk to make a difference in the public arena. Mainly, just show up and speak out! Silence is complicity. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks, but we may have to take to the streets. This was, of course, the day after the unbelievably awful Presidential debate Tuesday evening. Ellen and I were gluttons for punishment - we watched it all. It was not surprising, I guess, but still worse than we could have imagined. And now we're wondering if Trump was spewing virus the whole hour and a half, and who might he have infected? Hopefully no one. It is all just unbelievable! But it is actually happening before our eyes. Our local Windham-Union Association of churches hopes to have CTS President Ray as a guest speaker in a zoom meeting on Nov. 15th - twelve days after the election (and Ellen's birthday!). What will the world look like then?! Zoom makes possible having someone like him present for the meeting - from Chicago - which would normally be impossible.
No comments:
Post a Comment